Thursday, July 20, 2006

FDR tried to censor Flynn

I didn't know that an American president once tried to censor a mainstream political critic. A history prof writes:

Little did [John T.] Flynn realize, however, that his hostility to Roosevelt and his agenda was destroying his reputation as a liberal journalist. In July 1939, in response to an article in the Yale Review, Roosevelt wrote a confidential letter to the editor in which he called Flynn ?a destructive rather than a constructive force,? and suggested that in the future the journal refuse to print articles by him. It is unknown whether Roosevelt sent such letters to other editors, but in any case it is clear that by late 1940 fewer and fewer of Flynn?s manuscripts were finding their way into print.